The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-05
SLEEPING-CAR P0RTERS.
THE WAGES PAID AND SOME
THING ABOUT TIPS RECEIVED.

THE WAGES PAID AND SOME
THING ABOUT TIPS RECEIVED.
An Exporter Tells a Sad Story as to
the Treatment of Porters by the Com
panies-Fined for Every Little Of
tense or Neglect-Compelled to For
age ON the Public to Exc Out Liv-
ing.
From the Chicago Tribune.
Sleeping-car porters are believed in some
quarters to be the most rapacious of all the
tip-seeking class For decade the car por-
ter has been the object of the wrath of the
travelling public, the sport of the newspaper
photographers, the possessor of the dislike of
all travelling women, who never give tips,
and has been regarded in kind of hap
hazard way as embodying all the evils of
mendicancy supplemented by the skill of
Dick Turpinism Sleeping-car porters have
also been known as ''robbers of the road
and each and every one is supposed to have
goodly amount of government bonds
slowed away fcr rainy day.
A very intelligent colored man came into
the office yesterday He said: Il want to
say word for the sleeping-car porter. l
see lots of paragraphs going about in the
papers | pick up in the car, and it seems
every body is down ON the porter because he
expects 25c. for nights attendance and
bootblacking win you letme say my says"
"Most certainly said reporter, land be
glad to do it, We have been waiting for a
story from your side. Now is your oppor-
tunity."
The colored man is perhaps IS years of
age, and has been a sleeping-car porter for
twelve years He says he has gotten through
with the business and now proposes to do
something else for a livelihood. II have
read Jokes about the class | once belonged
to till I'm tired. Now, | want to give the
other side. Will you listen to thatw
with pleasure"
''Well now, / want the travelling public
to understand that the car-porter is the
worst treated of the laboring class of people.
Persons who travel constantly understand
this well and are our sympathizers, and
help us out, but the great bulk of people
think we are a shoal of sharks. 1t is not
true, sir. The sleeping-car porters are for
the most part deserving class and ought to
have more favorable recognition. What
want to say first, SIR" said the colored
man as he drew his chair up closer, what
do you think of rich corporation paying
their men but an average of Sis a month
Some men get a little more, some get less,
but the average is about $l5. Out of that
we are supposed TO live on the road, sup
port families if we have them, buy uni
forms, pay fines, and work on an average
eighteen hours a day.
80, but you are supposed to help this out
by your tips"
''That is just what want to talk about
Do you think a great corporation, boasting
its millions or more surplus, ought to force
its servants to get their support from the
public on tipsr tf
The argument was unanswerable.
But" continued the exporter, that is
not all. Even the meagre salary they prom
Use you is usually kept back in the shape of
fines, shortages and so on. In the first
place, porter is supposed to be with his
car as long as it is on Wheels SO to speak
that is, as long as it is in motion Most of
the work is of course at night The porter
must be up and wide awake at all hours If
spotter, and there are plenty
of them on the road, catches him mapping
it is IS fine--one-third OF
his months salary. If spotter again re-
ports him he is discharged and all his salary
due is taken Smaller fines are imposed,
ranging from cent to 81, which often eat
up the whole months pay. The most fire.
quent sources of fine is the linen of the car.
If towel lis missing the poor porter il
charged Soc Now we know how often la
dies have to use extra linen. They don't
stop to think, but take it. The porter is
charged Soc for every piece missing. If a
wisp-broom getsYost it means SOC. fine Soap
they don't charge us for, which is a wonder.
The buffet-car porters are charged twice the
retail price for every glass or piece of
crockery they break, for every napkin that
gets lost, and for every ounce of provisions
not accounted for as calculated on the mar
newest basis" .-. 81.
s'Then there does not seem to be much in
the car-porterage profession except it be
from tips Z" ,-s ..-....t =
There is mighty little in that, the way
the thing is running. The public have got q
little mad at the meanness of the car COM
panies, and a good many more ten-cent
pieces get into our hands than quarters. A
good many people scowl when the wisp-
broom approaches, and as for ladies-well,
they never give us anything. They think
we are paid good salaries and ought to be
content with that"
"What is about the average income of the
car porter, taking his salary free from fines
and his tips n
1T will run from s45 to SIS month.
But want to say that his salary ought not
to count, for in seven cases out of ten the
salary is eaten up by fines and shortages
But the income depends on the run. The
best run Is between Chicago and st. Louis
A porter can on that run, II he is lucky on
fines and hasn't too many towels and nap
kins to account for, make $15 a month.
But that's the only run in the country of its
kind"
WHAT makes it so valuabley'
"Its short-its simply all night. The cars
are always full and every passenger is good
for quarter, or dime,at least.
"How are the long runs-don't they pay
the best! Say the New York limited--isn't
that pretty goodF
BLESS you, no. The limited on all the
roads is the worst that is sent out. 1t is
supposed to be the best for tips, considering
the class of travel, so the companies only
pay Sl2 or so "a month on that train, but you
don't get it, You see there is only one
night out Now you can't get more'n a
quarter for a overnight run, don't care how
rich and liberal the Traveller Is; and then
you've always got TO discount the ladies. AS
l said before, ladies never pay anything.
We can brush the nap off their cloaks, but
they dontsee the point Lots of times I've
brushed till I've got tired and the only re-
mard was request to get the baby glass
of ice-water or demand TO carry out that
dead lunch-hamper. l don't go much on
ladies as passengers
But you think St Louis Is the best run n
Eyes. st. Paul comes next ON ordinary
trains, but the fast train, no! You sec, the
ordinary trains stop oftener, get ON more
passengers, and the quarter is nimbler.
Those trains are worth about $50 a month,
including salary, if it is not taken from